Sauder furniture at the Dream House showroom

Gautier furniture at the Gautier showroom

Truzo furniture at the Decor Plaza showroom

Ramboo furniture at Decor India. Pictures by S.H. Patgiri

Your neighbourhood carpenter could soon be moving out. Retail furniture has moved into the city — and at a pace faster than one can say Sauder, Gautier or Truzo.

Readymade branded pre-laminated household effects is the newest toast of Guwahati’s changing lifestyle, a fad that has been spurred on by upmarket television visuals, a consumerist culture and an increasing spending power of its denizens. The domino effect of a fancy for all things branded has finally reached home interiors and products. Your favourite carpenter may still be modelling your dream bedstead or the sofa that looked so chic in an Italian magazine, but his trade is taking a beating. And not merely because his rival stuff looks great, but also because quality timber is becoming scarce.

“Mature quality timber is difficult to come by these days, especially after the Supreme Court ban on felling. Added to this difficulty is high labour cost, which, in turn, leads to high production cost,” says Manoj Agarwala, a timber products manufacturer, who recently switched over to retailing the Truzo range of furniture at the Decor Plaza showroom in the city.

Timber scarcity aside, it is the push-button culture of the new century that has extended to furniture which is really giving pre-fabricated, particle board furniture the extra timbre. “It is not merely a fancy for branded stuff. Buying off-the-shelf furniture is practical. After all who has the time these days to keep track of the carpenter?” asks Salim Ahmed, a businessman-contractor who recently did up his home with spanking modular units.

Of course, the busy urbanite is also no longer willing to take chances with the quality of the wood, too. Says Piya Sharma, a homemaker who recently had to buy new furniture for her bedroom. “I was cheated blue by the carpenter I have known for years. His excuse is that quality wood is at a premium. I have, therefore, opted for branded stuff which is both reliable and durable,” says Sharma.

And the price tag? “No matter. Retail furniture can cost one up to 25 per cent more. But it is hassle-free and has an image,” says Ahmed.

Agrees M.K. Shah of Decor India, an exclusive showroom of Ramboo, the “hi-performance Prolen” furniture range. “Branded furniture, like a branded shirt, makes a statement, even it be ubiquitous. Price tags are of no value for the discerning customer. Our range of furniture, for instance, is premium priced. But then one does get a wide variety of hip choices, something unique that homes can boast and show off.”

Actually, the entire concept of interiors, and thereby its main component, furniture, has undergone a sea change — not only in the city but in urban Northeast as well. “People from prosperous Upper Assam tea and oil centres as well as several from Shillong, Aizawl, Kohima, Dimapur and even far-off Itanagar are doing up their homes with retail furniture. This has a lot to do with exposure to good living and availability of products that are of global standards,” says Prateek Jain of Dream House, that sells a wide variety of brands, ranging from the premium-priced US-made Sauder to the more economical Indian Zuari.

For people living in the urban and prosperous semi-urban centres of the region, who are also largely westernised, the showrooms have come as a boom. In both the premium as well as the economy range, the options for the region’s furniture buyers have increased — Sauder, Gautier, Usha Lexus, Truzo, Durian, Nitraa and Zuari — the customer is spoiled for choice.

While a Sauder bedroom ensemble is priced not less than Rs 1 lakh and a Gautier bedroom unit — also high end — ranges between Rs 40,000 and Rs 1.6 lakh, a Nitraa bedroom set sells for a more reasonable “between Rs 24,000-Rs 52,000”. The Truzo range, on the other hand, is 100 per cent imported furniture which is sourced from master craftsmen from around the world — with prices ranging from Rs 27,000 for a double bedstead to Rs 79,000 for a designer leather sofa. The Usha Lexus range, retailed at the showroom Neerh, comes in several packages — Manhattan, Manhattan 2K, Monte Carlo, Oriental and Heritage — in wood or combinations of wood and wrought-iron and in prices ranging from Rs 64,000-Rs 1.15 lakh.

The available products are also edgy and post modern, which essentially means clean minimal lines that reflect contemporary attitude. For those caught up in the nervous tightrope of fast-changing trends, these assembled ranges of furniture make for an easy choice. “Decorative trends change by the day. Retail furniture allows one to make a blind choice, even while knowing that it is the right choice,” says Manoj Patwary, manager of Furniture.com, the “pioneer” off-the-shelf furniture showroom, which now mainly retails the Zuari brand from the K.K. Birla Group.

Adds Piku Baruah, customer care manager of Neerh showroom, “Machine-made products have a rich look no doubt. But the keyword is easy maintenance.” The swelling bandwagon of furniture retail is also capitalising on the burgeoning apartment construction in the city — where spaces are more or less fixed and the architecture contemporary. Furniture showrooms, where “display” is the buzzword, gives the customer the final visual effect of their spaces. Moreover, says Patwary, since brand furniture can be dismantled and bought in units, it is a boon for those living in apartments. “Certain brands also allow for replacement of units in case of wear and tear,” adds Jain, who says that his showroom is registering an increase of 10 per cent in sales every month.

Die-hard wood fanatics though are sceptical of the way the furniture scene is heading. They contend that these “artificially-created engineered board products” have no resale value. What happens when and if people get bored with their effects? asks Kalyan Dutta, manufacture of traditional wood furniture, “Solid wood is priceless. Brand furniture, trendy now, can be out of fashion tomorrow. One pays more at least 30 per cent to 40 per cent more for products that have no future.”

Interior designers, too, are chary of fashioning homes with off-the-shelf furniture units. “They restrict creativity. Moreover, every homemaker wants his or her house to be unique. Retail furniture — albeit highbrow — is nonetheless an assembly line of products. One can walk into a similar-looking room next door,” says well-known interior designer Arup Das.

All said and done the retail furniture has caught the imagination of the region’s be-theres and wannabes. And till another lifestyle revolution comes calling, is perhaps here to stay.